Departing from Hue we ride along highway 1 to Quang Tri town, visiting Long Hung Church and Quang Tri Old Citadel which was a battlefield in 1972 between North and South Vietnam for 81 days and nights.

We stop for lunch at Cua Viet Beach then ride along the coast to Cua Tung Beach a long stretch of beautiful and peaceful coastline.

Next we visit the Vinh Moc tunnels and explore the Demilitarised Zone, before returning to Cua Tung Beach where we will spend the night

his morning we leave the beach and head west to the Phong Nha Caves, arriving approx 12pm. After checking into the hotel and enjoying lunch we take a boat trip to the Caves.

We spend the afternoon at the stunning Phong Nha Cave system, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it was formed 400 million years ago making it the largest in Asia.

Today we travel through beautiful countryside on the journey from Phong Nha to Tan Ky. Passing Tea plantations, rice fields, traditional villages, mountains, valleys and streams before arriving in Tan Ky late afternoon.

Established in 1962, Cuc Phuong is the oldest national park in Vietnam. Cuc Phuong boasts engaging cultural and wildlife heritage and enchanting scenery. Magnificent limestone mountains rise up majestically from the green rice-terraces and traditional stilt houses of the Muong hill-tribe. Covered in a dense forest they form a habitat for some of Asia's rarest species. It is no wonder that researchers, naturalists, enthusiasts and conservationists alike are drawn to this corner of the world.

Our destination today is Mai Chau, a chain of villages surrounded by a lush green valley with stilt houses bordering both sides of the roads. Many minorities, including the White Thai ethnic group, live in Mai Chau. Tonight we stay in a traditional Thai stilt house in one of the villages and you have the option of attending a Thai folk show.

Today we travel on a good road looking high over distant mountains as we head up into a forested region populated by H'mong people, before descending into a mountainous tea-growing region. Then we follow a long valley floor covered in a sea of rice surrounded by Black Thai villages all the way to Son La with its bargain-filled market. Tonight we stay in a hotel.